Schechter asked the husband to call her nursing station every night when he reached his destination. She then told his wife of his arrival, kissed her good night and helped her drift off to sleep.

Recently the patient, now many years older, sought help from Highland Park Hospital`s Home Health Services, one of several programs Schechter administers. The woman still remembered Schechter`s loving care, which she said had helped ease the anxiety of her hospital stay.

``People are special, and their needs are special. I want to be able to help them however I can,`` says Schechter, division director of the hospital`s Community and Mature Health Services, which caters mostly to older adults and their families.

Recently the hospital bestowed its Manager of the Year award on Schechter for being an outstanding employee. The 46-year-old Highland Park native says, however, that her devotion to her job and helping others is characteristic of all staff members at the hospital, a full-service, 325-bed facility celebrating its 70th anniversary in July.

``There`s a whole sense of caring at this hospital,`` she says. ``Some community hospitals become too cold as they grow, but Highland Park Hospital has maintained its attitude of concern for people as it has expanded.``

The hospital serves about 11,000 inpatients and 200,000 outpatients each year from Highland Park, Glencoe, Northbrook, Northfield, Lake Forest, Lake Bluff, Highwood, Lincolnshire and Bannockburn. It also serves several other northwest suburban communities at its non-emergency medical centers in Glenview and Long Grove.

With about 1,000 staff members, the hospital is Highland Park`s largest employer. More than half its workers live in Highland Park and surrounding suburbs.

Schechter, a bubbly dynamo who exudes enthusiasm, has watched the hospital mushroom technologically and physically since her teenage years, when she worked there as a volunteer ``candy striper`` and nurse`s aide.

After getting a bachelor`s degree in nursing in 1960 from the University of Illinois on a scholarship from the hospital auxiliary, she returned to her old turf, first as a staff nurse for seven years and then as a nursing supervisor for a decade. She also received a master`s degree in health management from Webster University, St. Louis.

She left the hospital to work for five years in a managerial job at the Lake County Health Department, and returned to the hospital five years ago to oversee for Schechter five years ago when the hospital asked her to oversee its Home Health Services, a program providing home medical and emotional care to former hospital patients and other community members. Participants range from stroke victims who must relearn everyday tasks to parents of newborns with special needs.

``Society has come full circle in health care,`` says Schechter, noting that a growing number of people are treating chronic health problems at home, much as people did early this century, instead of in the hospital.

The home health care movement has left many people feeling helpless because they are used to dealing with physical and emotional difficulties in institutional settings, Schechter observes. The hospital continues to inaugurate services that bridge the gap between institutional and home care, she says.

One program that does this is Hospice, a free service offering home medical attention, spiritual support, nutritional advice, and bereavement counseling to terminally ill patients and their families. The program, which Schechter supervises, began as a pilot program in 1976 and became official in 1978.

In the last few years the hospital has developed several related services designed to provide older adults with what Schechter calls ``a continuum of care.`` Because staff members from each program work together closely, participants feel a sense of continuity when they move from one service to another.

Unfortunately, Schechter says, American society undervalues the elderly and often fails to care for them with compassion and respect. ``We want to be able to provide as many services as we can to older people in our community because their needs keep changing,`` she says.

For older adults seeking companionship, intellectual stimulation, emotional support and physical care outside the home, the hospital offers Alternative Adult Day Service, a structured day program that Schechter oversees. Participants engage in activities ranging from gardening to exercising. Recently they performed a public puppet show, writing the script, building the stage and making the papier-mache puppets.